Brave Men's Blood

Even though we know that Iceland lost its innocence with the bank crisis, the picture sketched by Brave Men's Blood is still sobering. Corruption, drugs, torture, Eastern European gangsters - they can all be found in this hard police thriller. Olaf de Fleur Johannesson adopts a considerably harsher tone than in his film The Higher Force, previously screened in Rotterdam.
The protagonist is the son of a legendary policeman. Happily married with a simple view of good and evil, he fails the harsh training for the armed brigade, but on the advice of his father is accepted by the Internal Affairs Department of the Icelandic police. A golden tip from a prisoner puts him on the trail of a connection between the head of the narcotics brigade and the new gangster king of Reykjavik.
His innocent yet vigorous efforts and use of a female undercover agent with a traumatic past serves to set off an unforeseen chain reaction of revenge, deceit and a battle for power which has tragic consequences. Many interests seem to be tangled up.